Wet Leaves Vs. Dry Leaves For Your Mulching Project

When it comes to choosing between wet and dry mulch, there are a lot of options to consider. You can choose sawdust, straw, bark and so on. Today we are going to talk about leaves. If you have a lot of leaves in your compound, you may be wondering if you can mow over them. It is possible to more over them. You can mow over them to make some quality mulch. However, there is a big difference between mowing over the leaves when dry and wet. There are advantages to mowing over dry leaves than when they are wet. Wet leaves can cause a lot of problems.

Clogged mower

Mowing over leaves when they are wet could clog up your mower, depending on the quantity of leaves you have in your compound. Wet leaves will stick to everything – the underside of your mower. When this happens, you will be forced to stop mowing every couple of minutes to get rid of the wet leaves and free the blade of your mower. When mowing wet leaves, they can cause a lot of problems for the mower besides making you replace your mower’s blade more often.

Slippery

If you have dealt with wet leaves then you already know that they have a tendency of getting very slippery, especially if they are in large quantities. Losing your footing when mowing is a dangerous situation. You should therefore try to avoid mowing over wet leaves. If there is an area that doesn’t get enough sunlight to dry your leaves before using them for mulch, you should consider raking your leaves and moving them to a place where they can dry out. When the leaves dry, you can now use the lawn mower.

The mower cannot reach

When your leaves are wet, they can easily be matted down. Matting makes it harder for the blade of the mower to reach the leaves and this means that it will be difficult to use your leaves in the garden. You may find that you have to mow over the same spot several times before you can completely mow the leaves. You may also find that you have to stop your mower from time to time and use a rake to move the wet leaves around. This makes the work harder for you. If your leaves are wet then you should rake them three or two times on a dry day to dry them out before you can attempt to use a mower over them.

Heavy

Another downside of wet leaves is that they are heavier than dry leaves. You will notice this if you bag your leaves to place around your garden. A bag full of wet leaves is much heavier than a bag full of dry leaves.

The bottom line

If you want to get the most out of your leaves, you should dry them because dealing with dry mulch is easier, quicker and more convenient. You will not have to stop your mower from time to time to remove leaves from the blade when you use dry leaves.

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